SpaceFest Celebrations Start in New York

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The second-annual SpaceFest kicks off in New York today (July 25)
at the floating home of NASA's space shuttle prototype
Enterprise.

Through the weekend, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in
Manhattan, located on the former U.S. Navy aircraft carrier
Intrepid, will be hosting a series of space-themed events.
Astronauts will be on hand to talk about what it's like to live,
work and, well, go to the bathroom in orbit; a LEGO model of
Enterprise will be unveiled; and Star Trek: The Motion
Picture will be screened on the converted ship's flight
deck.

The celebration comes just two weeks after the Intrepid opened
its
new Space Shuttle Pavilion, Enterprise's exhibition area. The
original display debuted during last year's SpaceFest, but it had
to be closed only a few months later when Hurricane Sandy hit New
York and damaged the pavilion's enclosure beyond repair.

Highlights of this year's SpaceFest include:

A free screening of the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion
Picture on Friday (July 26) night.

NASA used Enterprise
in approach-and-landing test flights in the late 1970s. Though
the test plane never went into orbit, it paved the way for the
space shuttle program, which retired in 2011 after 30 years and
135 missions. Enterprise had been on display at the Smithsonian's
National Air and Space Museum annex outside of Washington, D.C.,
until it was moved to the Intrepid in 2012.

The rebuilt pavilion is only a temporary home; the Intrepid plans
to build a permanent facility to display the test shuttle near,
but not on, the aircraft carrier.